For many businesses, excess food is merely waste to be thrown away. But for charities, it represents a precious resource.

They can redistribute the supplies to the needy, ensuring that nothing is wasted. All they need is to be matched with appropriate donors.

This is where Food Bank Singapore comes in. The soon-to-be-opened centre – with the motto: ‘Do not bin it when you can still eat it’- will be the first to coordinate food donation across the island.

Its co-founders, Ms Nichol Ng and her brother Nicholas, are managing directors of FoodXervices, which supplies more than 3,000 products to 2,000 end customers. They realised there was a lot of waste in the food business and a shortage in the welfare sector. So they set up the bank, which allows them to use their industry contacts to find donors and match them with appropriate recipients.

‘Because we’re in the food industry and we do know suppliers, we can hopefully get more surplus food than if it were just one organisation,’ said Mr Ng, 33. The bank will also help logistically by storing, transporting and distributing donated food. This could include unopened packages or fresh food from suppliers and retailers such as supermarkets.